Roberto Mancini insists Manchester City will take the Premier League title race down to the wire after his side surrendered top spot to Manchester United in a shock 1-0 defeat against Swansea.
Mancini’s men gave a lacklustre performance at the Liberty Stadium and were punished by substitute Luke Moore’s 83rd-minute winner for the Swans.
With United cruising to a 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion, City were pushed off pole position by their bitter rivals for the first time since October.
Despite a frustrating afternoon in south Wales, at the end of a week which also featured a 1-0 Europa League loss to Sporting Lisbon, Mancini remains confident City are still in the right frame of mind to take the title fight to the final weeks.
“We shall fight against them until the end. We have another 10 games to finish this Championship,” he said.
“The season is long and the situation changes every week. It is important that we stay together. But this result changes nothing.
“It is better to stay at the top, of course, but we are now a point behind. It does not change our target. I don’t see it as a critical game. I think this championship will be decided with two games to go.”
Mancini admitted Swansea had given his side a tough time, with Joe Hart saving an early penalty from Scott Sinclair, but he was disappointed City were unable to convert any of their own chances.
“It has been a difficult last four days. But I don’t think we deserved to lose the game,” Mancini said.
“Swansea played very well for the first 30 minutes. After that, in the second half we had control of the game, but we missed three or four good chances and that is the problem we have at the moment I think.
“After that we conceded a stupid goal. We cannot concede goals like this.”
Mancini hauled off Gareth Barry after 36 minutes but claimed that his decision was based on a mystery injury rather than his performance.
“Gareth Barry has had a problem for three weeks.
“They had a lot of possession for 30 minutes and we needed another striker,” Mancini said.
“It is not because he played bad. He has had a problem but I don’t know where. I know it is not a big injury.”